We're starting to fill up the calendar with a bunch of dates this summer. We're really excited about our schedule into the fall, which includes:

A return to the always awesome Woodlands Tavern

Our first time at Oscar's

Our first gig at Tumbleweed

A number of private events

Pizza and tunes at Spinoza's

Spots on some great regional music festivals.

Some of the band will be taking part in honoring the efforts of those who toiled at Standing Rock

We've also got a number of other dates that are being firmed up and we hope to announce those soon. We're hard at work learning new material so we can keep all of these shows fresh and share a bunch of different music with everyone.

Dayton was founded on April 1, 1796, by 12 settlers known as “The Thompson Party.” They traveled in March from Cincinnati up the Great Miami River by pirogue and landed at what is now St. Clair Street

— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayton,_Ohio

* Please note that a pirogue is a "a long narrow canoe made from a single tree trunk", not a Polish dumpling. Those don't support 12 people on a river trip

It's no joke! (See what we did there...) On April 1st, we're going to be playing a special show at Jimmie's Ladder 11 to celebrate the city of Dayton, OH on its very own birthday. The kind folks at Jimmie's are going to be serving up a host of local resfreshments and locally-themed food, some of which is made with said local beers and spirits - Toxic Tacos, Bella of Dayton Grinder, The Brown Street Burger and Warped Wings. We'll be serving up 3 sets of Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia music for your listening and dancing pleasure. So come out and celebrate 121 years of it being great in Dayton!

Show starts at 9:30 (10 at the latest...) and the cover is $5 for the show.

Spring is here and new dates have sprung up on our schedule. We're ready to get back in front of all you wonderful people and play our interpretations of Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia music. We're hard at work learning new tunes and putting together fresh set lists.

We're especially excited about our show on March 19th with the Jaden Carlson Band at Therapy Cafe. Jaden Carlson is a young performer who is already very accomplished and has played with a number of great artists. She's backed by a powerhouse band who serves up a diverse sound. Thanks to Family Jam Productions for putting on the show and having us out on the bill. Tickets are $10 at the door. You're not going to want to miss seeing this up and coming performer.

The Jaden Carlson Band has headlined major venues all over Colorado, as well as played direct support for national touring bands Twiddle, The Revivalists, The Werks, DeVotchKa, Robert Cray, Anders Osborne, and Marco Benevento just to name a few.

“Polychromatic”, an 11-song cd of all originals, is Jaden’s fourth album and was released in October 2014, to both highly regarded journalistic and musician/peer reviews.

Jaden is the youngest musician to legitimately play on the the Red Rocks Stage at age 11 with Michael Franti and Spearhead, and again the next night with Blues Traveler; and has also played numerous sit-ins with Umphrey’s McGee, The Revivalists, Lettuce, Dumpstaphunk, The Main Squeeze, The Nth Power, Twiddle, The Werks, TAUK, Zoogma, The Motet, Dopapod, members of Snarky Puppy, Vulfpeck, Big Gigantic, The String Cheese Incident and many more.

First off, a big thank you Julie and everyone at One Eyed Jacks. We had a great time playing for you all. Big fun, big crowd and lots of dancing and music. I'm sure we'll be back again soon.

Next up for us is another free show in Beavercreek at Spinoza's Pizza and Salads at the Fairfield Commons. If you haven't already been, they've got a great selection of artisan pizzas and salads, as well as a ever-changing selection of craft beers.

We'll be playing on Saturday, February 11th from 7 to 10. It's a free show, but you might want to call in advance and make reservations.

Oh sure, we're a little late in wishing everyone a Happy New Year, but we're already keeping busy over at Great Northern HQ. We're lining up a few private gigs, some special events and we've been eyeing some summer festivals in the hopes of being included.

First of all, if you haven't been to a show in a bit, our own Khrys Blank has taken charge of the merch and lined up some great t-shirts and button. Best of all, she's employing her badass tie-dye skills as head honcho of Blank Expressions to produce some killer GNSB tie dyes. Those shirt, non tie-dye shirts and buttons are available at our live shows.

Our first gig of the year is a very special one. We'll be part of Woodlands Tavern's 6th Annual Grateful Dead Tribute Night. It's a great group of bands playing including Arrows of Neon, Strange Grain, Scarlet & Grateful, Cowboy Hillbilly Hippy Folk and us. We'll be closing out the night from 12:30 to 2:00 AM on the Tavern Side. It's going to be a good one folks, so come out and new, new mingle with your area Deadheads pals.

And on the home front news, our first show in the Dayton area this year will be at One Eyed Jacks in Fairborn. Julie and the crew are always great hosts and we're looking forward to playing 3 sets of Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia tunes in a kind environment. This will be a fun one as we'll be able to break out some new songs and a few we haven't played in a while.

After that, we've got a double secret private event at the end of the month. We can't tell you about it. Sorry. You'll be missing a good time.

But don't fret! In early February - the 11th to be exact - we are playing at Spinoza's in Beavercreek at the Mall at Fairfield Commons. There will be lovely pairing of a carefully curated list of draft beers, delectable pizzas and 8 people crammed onto the stage knocking out some good old Grateful Dead and Jerry songs for all you beautiful people.

We're very pleased to be a part of Fancy Fest 2, a celebration of the life of Nancy Brewer. Fancy Fest 2 is going to be a great night of music and friends at a very cool location. Ticket availability is going to be limited, so don't wait to get tickets!

Fancy Fest was created last year to celebrate the life of Nancy Brewer, and everyone who attended made that night as beautiful as we could have hoped. It truly was a celebration of life - for Nancy and for all of us. We really wanted to keep that going, so we're bringing Fancy Fest back again this year!

This year's fest will be held in Yellow Springs, on an amazing plot of private land nestled in a beautiful natural setting and bordered by the scenic Little Miami River. Tent camping is available.

There's nothing like playing music in the great outdoors for kind people, and it's made even better when it's for a good cause. On Saturday, August 20th, we'll be playing SamJam Music and Arts Festival in Winchester, OH. SamJam is a 100% non-profit Music and Arts festival where ALL proceeds benefit Life Center and furthering the awareness and education of organ donation!

We're also very excited because we're going to be paired up with Hyryder, a Grateful Dead tribute band from Indianapolis, and noted radio host, author and performer, David Gans. We had the pleasure of getting to share a bill with David at the sadly defunct Square Roots Records earlier this year. Not only did we enjoy his originals and interpretation of Dead songs, we also had a chance to jam out a couple tunes with him. Hopefully, we'll have a chance to do that again at the festival.

The whole day will be filled with music, vendors and even a cornhole tournament. Tickets are $25 at the gate.

We're gearing up for a great summer of festivals and shows. We're very excited that we'll be a part of the Miami Valley Music Fest this year. We'll be kicking off the day with an 11:00 AM set on Saturday, July 30th on one of the main stages. Get your pre-sale tickets now - they won't be available for much longer.

We'll have a couple weeks off and then we're headed to SamJam Festival in Manchester, OH on August, 20th. It's going to be a very Head friendly festival, with Indiana's Hyryder and noted Grateful Dead author and radio host David Gans on the bill.

The last festival for the summer for us is the newly relocated Hog Jam on August 26th and 27th. This year, it's going to be up in Tipp City and features a great lineup of regional talent.

A very big thank you to all who came out for "From the Bar to Castlebar" to help support our friend Jessica Farra get to the Irish dancing world championship. So many local businesses and artists came together to support someone in the community who is going to be representing Dayton on a world stage. The amount of gift baskets that everyone put together was impressive and there were some really great prizes given away in the name of charity.

Below are the local businesses and artists that helped out (sorry if I missed anyone in the list).

In other news, we're pleased to announce that we're going to be playing a few festivals this summer. First up is the perennial favorite Miami Valley Music Fest on July 29th-30th. After that, we're playing the SamJam festival on August 20th in Manchester, Ohio. We'll be finishing up our summer festival run at Hog Jam 11 on August 27th! It's going to be a great summer of music and we're lookig forward to seeing you all out there.

Our friend, Jessica Farra, has earned a chance to complete at the 2016 CRN Irish Dancing Championship in Castlebar, Ireland. This accomplishment is the culmination of years of dedication to her craft and a chance to compete at the highest level. Jessica is an ardent patron of local music, arts and businesses. We in the community wanted to repay her support by helping defray some of the costs for this amazing opportunity.

On Sunday, May 15th, The Trolley Stop has graciously agreed to host a benefit for Jessica. There will be music from Trey Stone & The Ringers and Great Northern String Band, as well as dancing by Jessica. The night will end with an all-star jam. The event starts at 5, and is family-friendly until 9:30.

Thanks so much to Brad from Square Roots Records and David Gans for a really great evening of music. David played a great set and then joined us during ours for really fun versions of "Shakedown" and "Terrapin". The show was recorded so we should have some audio to share with you.

If you're a fan of the Dead, you owe it to yourself to become familiar with David's work. He does a great job interpreting Dead songs (as well as his own material), hosts the The Grateful Dead Hour and has written some great books, like his recent book with Blair Jackson "This Is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead". Head over to www.davidgans.com for more info and links to pick up some of his stuff.

Hey everyone!Welcome to the brand new Great Northern String Band website. We'll be keeping this space updated with the latest news and content, so check back on it often.

We'd like to say thanks to the kind folks at One Eyed Jacks for having us out last Saturday. The crowd and the vibes were great. We had a blast. We did record part of the show so we hope to have some audio to share in the near future. We're going to do our best to share whatever live footage of our shows that we can. We are taper friendly, so tapers feel free to bring your gear. Reach out to us if you have any question about it.

Up next for us is our first show at the Trolley Stop this Saturday, February 20th. Hope to see everyone out there. The show starts at 9:30.